Doyle Runs Down the Cancon Cornucopia

CANADIAN CREATIVES have a tough, fair minded ally in the Globe & Mail's John Doyle. He's not a cheerleader for homegrown stuff -- if it's not very good he'll say it -- which means his recommendations are less dismissable. And though there are those inside the CBC who don't get it, who go apoplectic over every Doyle criticism -- they fail to understand that not only is he just doing his job, but he's doing it from a place of general intense support for the CBC.

So this morning he runs down the Cancon offerings for fall and winter on the various networks. Now, the sensitive people in the CBC are liable to cotton to this passage:

Mind you, CBC takes a Soviet-era, Kremlin-like stance on advance notice of its shows. Asked to provide a list of what's coming between now and late January, CBC's outsourced publicity company essentially provided a list of what's airing next week. Later came notice of two other shows, neither of which I'd pick as really notable.

It seems some CBC shows don't exist until some CBC executive says they exist, which happens in November. This is weird. Thousands of people have seen snippets of the hockey drama MVP on YouTube. The show looks sensationally good and there's much buzz, but it doesn't exist until the Kremlin says it exists. Advance buzz isn't a CBC thing. CBC's policy is this: Whatever you say, say nothing.

A couple of months ago, when the fall stuff was announced, and when CBC specifically announced their fall schedule, they actually took some heat from journalists because they weren't doing enough drama. This, when in reality there were at least three more series in production for later starts. I know. I was working on one of them.

Consequently, the story got spun the way it did instead of the true story, which is this: If you care at all about quality Canadian drama and comedy, you need to care about the CBC. They are doing more, they are making shows with the right budget, and they're working really hard to make them good -- harder than any other Canadian broadcaster. Period.

The attitude that Doyle talks about isn't helping to get that message out. But it needs to get out. For all its flaws, the CBC wears the white hat here.

Anyway -- moving on to the shameless self promotion part of the discussion, here's what Doyle has to say about the two shows I'm involved with this fall:

Across the River to Motor City (CITY-TV, starts Nov. 22) is perhaps the most ambitious of the new Canadian dramas. Set both in Detroit and in Windsor, Ont., and in both the present and the 1960s, it's about private eye Ben Ford (played in youth by Sasha Roiz, and in old age by David Fox), whose girlfriend disappeared on the day of the JFK assassination. Her remains are finally found, and Ben must unravel what happened. Noirish, moody and complex, it's got an awful lot of plot.

The Border (CBC) "confronts Canada's toughest border-security issues" according to the CBC. It's about an outfit called the Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) Squad, and it stars James McGowan, Sofia Milos, Graham Abbey and Catherine Disher. An expensive bet for CBC, the series is big on action and intrigue, in a genre that requires oodles of ingenuity in the writing and directing. The rough pilot episode I've seen is promising but dramatically wobbly.

So there it is. ATR premieres the week of November 22 on Citytv stations in those markets that have them. (Check your local listings for the exact date and time. I think Winnipeg actually goes first, on the 19th.) The Border premieres on CBC in early 2008.

Of the other shows Doyle talks about, I think I'm probably looking forward most to MVP. (I had a shameful early dalliance with Footballers Wives) and Search and Rescue -- though I've also got high hopes for Da Kink in My Hair.

And don't forget, Rent-A-Goalie returns October 28. I've got two eps of that, 2nd season, too.

Oh, and Blood Ties continues on SPACE and Citytv. My eps are toward the end of the season. Oh God, the shameless self promo...somebody stop me...